Cryptocurrency is entering the racing scene. Crypto.com has inked a deal with Formula One racing worth approximately $100 million at the time of writing.
Crypto.com Has Stepped Into the World of Professional Driving
Through the deal, Crypto.com gets top-branding options with the organization including roadside billboards for the rest of the year, ensuring drivers are aware of the site’s presence. This is now the second big deal instituted by Crypto.com in the world of professional race car driving. The first occurred in March of this year between the website and the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One team, which led to a series of new NFT (non-fungible tokens) for fans to enjoy.
CMO of Crypto.com Steve Kalifowitz explained in an interview:
We worked closely with [Aston Martin Racing] on content creation, strategy, and bringing our customers valuable content. People were able to buy, as collectibles, the first videos and moments of Sebastian [Vettel] and Lance [Stroll] driving the new car. Our customers will get special access to Aston Martin and F1 in general. Will those be extended from the NFTs directly? Those are the things that are still under discussion, but the whole industry is still experimenting and figuring out what works for different properties… You would not have imagined two years ago that a company like Aston Martin in Formula One joined Crypto.com in a partnership, and where crypto was shunned earlier because they were not sure about it, people are embracing it now and seeing it is good technology that can solve a lot of problems when applied properly.
He went on to say that crypto has been shunned over the past few years given how volatile it has been and how often coins go up and down. He says that in 2017, bitcoin likely struck bubble status and when it began incurring heavy drops the following year, people began to forget about it or dismiss it. He says that even though the same thing is happening again now, crypto has garnered a much more solid reputation due to a growing institutional presence.
A Very Different Scene
He explains:
After the dot com bubble burst, that is when we got social media and the biggest companies of today: Facebook, Twitter and others. In those years, a lot was built, and the internet matured. You are seeing a lot of that today with cryptocurrency. Crypto had its bubble moment in 2017 and then people forgot about it for a while… The crypto industry has matured. Adults are running the show, now… The difference between now and in 2017 is there are institutions in the game, and they are less jittery than retail. It is a lot more sophisticated and a lot of naysayers in 2017 have come around to it.
Formula One says it is going into this deal with a bullish attitude and with its “eyes open.”
